A Thesis. Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Attainment of a Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

Transcription

1 IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS OF GRADE VIII B STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 1 JOGONALAN THROUGH NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER STRATEGY IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2014/2015 A Thesis Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Attainment of a Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education Identit Vigur Prasetyo ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS STATE UNIVERSITY OF YOGYAKARTA 2015

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5 DEDICATIONS I lovingly dedicate this thesis to: Keluarga. Bapak. Ibu. Mas Andi. Mas Dedy. Vigur. Adiv. Avida. v

6 MOTTO Anglaras ilining banyu, ngeli ananging ora keli. -Sunan Kalijaga- vi

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim. On this occasion, I would like to say thanks to all of those who have given me help and guidance so that this thesis can be finished. Sincerely I really appreciate and address my gratitude to the following parties: My supervisor, Dr. Agus Widyantoro, M.Pd., for his guidance, corrections, and suggestion in the accomplishment of this thesis. Eko Tatik Siswantini, S.Pd., English teacher at SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan who is also my collaborator, and the students of Class VIII B, for the cooperation, support, and help during the research. My big family: mother, father, brothers, for the endless prayer, love and patience. My teachers, for the knowledge. My other teachers, for the other knowledge and wisdom. My beloved PBI D friends, for the support. My greatest Ceria friends, for the support. All of my friends, that I cannot mention one by one. All other parties who cannot be mentioned individually but had given me all their supports and assistances. I hope that this thesis would be useful for the readers. However, I realise that this thesis is far from being perfect, so any criticisms, ideas and suggestions for the improvement of this thesis are greatly appreciated. Yogyakarta, 21 April 2015 The Researcher vii

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE.. APPROVAL SHEET.. RATIFICATION SHEET.. PERNYATAAN.... DEDICATIONS... MOTTOS.. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... TABLE OF CONTENTS... LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. ABSTRACT..... i ii iii iv v vi vii viii xii xiii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. The Background of the Research... 1 B. The Identification of the Problems...3 C. Delimitation of the Problem... 4 D. The Formulation of the Problem... 5 E. Objective of the Research... 5 F. Significance of the Research... 5 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW A. Literature Review The Notion of Speaking...7 a. The Definition of Speaking... 7 b. Functions of Speaking... 8 c. Basic Types of Speaking... 9 d. Micro-Macro- Skills of Speaking...11 e. Components Underlying Speaking Effectiveness...13 f. Difficulties of Speaking...14 viii

9 2. Teaching Speaking...15 a. Principles of Teaching Speaking...15 b. The Teacher s Roles...16 c. Classroom Speaking Activities...17 d. Different Factors Affecting Students Speaking Ability...18 e. Assessing Speaking f. Teaching Speaking in Junior High School Numbered Heads Together...22 a. The Nature of Numbered Heads Together ) Cooperative Learning Model ) Principles of Cooperative Learning Model ) Cooperative Learning Procedure ) Cooperative Learning Objectives...28 b. Applying Numbered Heads Together ) Steps of Numbered Heads Together ) The Advantages of Using NHT...29 B. Relevant Studies...31 C. Conceptual Framework...32 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD A. Type of Research B. Subject and Object of the Research C. Setting of the Research D. Procedure of the Research Reconnaissance Planning Action Observation Reflection...37 E. Data Collection Data Collection Technique...38 ix

10 2. Instruments F. Data Analysis Technique...39 G. Reliability and Validity CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Reconnaissance Identification of the Problem Problem Selection based on the Urgency Level Problem Selection based on the Feasibility Level...47 B. Implementation of the Actions Report of Cycle I...48 a. Planning...48 b. Action and Observation...50 c. Reflection Report of Cycle II...64 a. Planning...64 b. Action and Observation...65 c. Reflection...72 C. Findings and Discussion...75 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions.. 83 B. Implications.. 85 C. Suggestions REFERENCES APPENDICES A. Observations B. Course Grids C. Lesson Plans x

11 D. Attendance Lists 127 E. Speaking Rubric 128 F. Students Speaking Scores 129 G. Vignettes. 135 H. Interview Guidelines and Transcripts I. Photographs. 152 J. Letters xi

12 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table 1 Examples of Short Conversations.. 10 Table 2 Core and Basic Competences of Teaching Speaking in Junior High School Table 3 Field Problems Occurred in the Teaching and Learning Process. 47 Table 4 The Most Urgent Problems Table 5 The Most Feasible Problems 48 Table 6 Changes in the Teaching and Learning Process after the Implementation of the Actions 78 Table 7 Students Mean Scores in Speaking Aspects in Pre-Test Table 8 Students Mean Scores in Speaking Aspects in Cycle Table 9 Students Mean Scores in Speaking Aspects in Cycle Table 10 Comparison between the Students Mean Score in Pre-Test, Cycle 1, and Cycle 2 81 FIGURES Figure 1 Cyclical Action Research model based on Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988). 34 Figure 2 The Steps of the Qualitative Data Analysis. 39 Figure 3 Table for Tic Tac Toe Game 60 xii

13 IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS OF GRADE VIII B STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 1 JOGONALAN THROUGH NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER STRATEGY IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2014/2015 Identit Vigur Prasetyo ABSTRACT The objective of this research was to improve the speaking skills of grade VIII B students of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan in the academic year of 2014/2015 through Numbered Heads Together strategy. This research was categorized into action research that consisted of two cycles. This research used model proposed by Kemmis and Taggart in Burns (2010) that involved four phases in a cycle of research: planning, action, observation, and reflection. The participants of this research were 40 students in grade VIII B of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan. The focus of this research was improving the students speaking skill. The data of this research were in the forms of qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were in the forms of interview transcripts, vignette, and photos, which were collected by interviewing the students and the English teacher, observing the teaching and learning processes, and taking photographs. The quantitative data were in the forms of the students speaking scores, which were collected by conducting a pre-test and a speaking test. In this research, the researcher used three triangulation principles: time triangulation, space triangulation, and investigator triangulation. Based on the results and findings of the research, it showed that the implementation of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) strategy was successful to improve speaking skills of grade VIII B students of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan in the academic year of 2014/2015. The improvement involved in four aspects of speaking: pronunciation, intonation, fluency, and accuracy. The students were able to speak in falling or raising intonation based on the type of the sentences. Most of the students delivered their speaking fluently without hesitation. They were able to make dialogues by themselves. Most of the students placed the words in the right order and used various expressions based on the situation. The improvements were showed by comparing the mean scores of the students speaking scores in the pretest and Cycle 2. The gain score of pronunciation aspect was 1.04; the gain score of intonation aspect was 1.26; the gain score of accuracy aspect was 1.32; and the gain score of fluency aspect was It can be concluded that the improvements were found in each aspect of speaking. xiii

14 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Research English is regarded as an international language. It means that English is the preferred language to be used in international relationship. This situation requires Indonesian people to learn English in order to join to the global relationship. According to the Indonesian government rules No. 19/2005 articles 6 verse 1, English is one of compulsory subjects in the junior high schools. However, teaching English is not simple because Indonesian learns English as a foreign language. It means that English language is not widely used outside the school. English has several macro-skills of language that have to be mastered. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Those skills are related to each other. In this case, the focus is on the speaking skill. It is because speaking is considered as one of the basic skills of a language. It is the first macro-skill that has to be mastered by people who want to be able to communicate fluently. This consideration is based on Richards, (2008) that speaking is one of the elements of communication. Spratt, Pulverness, & William (2005) state that speaking is a productive skill. It involves producing language rather than receiving it. In speaking, people will produce spoken language. They also state that in speaking, people will make the use of speech. Speaking takes place everywhere and has become daily activities. People apply real things about language that they have learned. They also state that speaking is a stage of language mastery where people can express ideas, feeling, 1

15 2 and thought. In speaking, people should construct the ideas fluently and contextually to make it understandable so that other people can catch the meaning or the purpose. Teaching speaking requires more attention to the learner s performance. Learners must give more efforts to master the speaking skill because they do not use the language in the daily life. A teacher should create a good atmosphere in the classroom to enhance the speaking performance of the students. Besides, speaking activities do not work in the classroom because many factors prevent students to speak English with their friends. They are afraid of making mistakes, of being laughed by their friends and of having lack of confidence in their ability. Based on the observations in Grade VIII B of SMP N 1 Jogonalan and the interviews with the English teacher and the students, some problems related to the students speaking skills were found. The students were reluctant to speak English in the classroom and did not know how to start their speeches. When they tried to deliver their speeches, they often did not say the English words properly and used incorrect words. Their intonations were also flat. By conducting this research, the problems were expected to be solved. In this case, the researcher created the situation that was able to encourage real communication. Numbered Heads Together (NHT) is a cooperative learning strategy that is able to be applied in teaching speaking. NHT is believed as one of potential strategy that is able to encourage students to express themselves. NHT is also potentially useful to encourage students to interact with each other orally. Based on the reasons above, the solution was to implement NHT during the teaching

16 3 and learning process, especially speaking. By using this kind of strategy, students were expected that it is great to express their ideas. B. The Identification of the Problems All of the problems which were explained earlier were also seen at SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan. To identify the problems that occurred at SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan, following activities had been done: interviewing the English teacher and observing the English teaching and learning process in the classroom. Based on the observation and interview, Some problems were found in the classroom. The identification of the problems presented as follows. The first problem was related to the students. The students were not active during the classroom activities. Most of the students made many noises by talking each other during the lesson, even when the teacher was in the classroom. However, they just kept silent when the teacher asked questions to them. There were only some students actively involved during the lesson. Besides, the students seemed not enthusiast to practice speaking in English. It could be seen when the teacher asked them to perform in the class, most of them refused to do it. They were afraid of making mistakes. The students were reluctant to speak English. It could be seen that during the lesson, they used Indonesian even Javanese instead of English. Moreover, the students had low mastery in vocabulary so that they did not know the meaning of most English words and sentences. They also had problem in pronunciation. When they were asked to pronounce some English words, they could not pronounce the words correctly.

17 4 Second problem was related to the teaching method. Based on the observation and interviews, the interactive technique or media of teaching such as games, discussions, and group works were not applied to the teaching and learning process. As a result, the students did not have opportunities to interact with the teacher and the other students. Thus, the English teaching and learning process tended to be teacher-centered. The applied method did not give students enough opportunities to work cooperatively in discussing questions. Individual practices were mostly used in the classroom so that the interaction among students was very limited. Then, Indonesian was preferred to use than English during the lesson. As a result, the students were not accustomed to use English during the lesson. Finding those problems, there should be a way or a strategy to solve those problems so that the students speaking skills could improve. C. Delimitation of the Problem In this research, the focus was on the process of teaching speaking that can encourage students to express their ideas. By conducting that kind of teaching and learning process, students were expected to be stimulated to explore their speaking skills. They were also expected to be focus on constructing and expressing their ideas to be meaningful as required. The research focused on the eighth grade students.

18 5 D. Formulation of the Problem Based on limitation of the problem mentioned above, the formulation of the problem was: How can the students speaking skills at the second grade of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan be improved through Numbered Heads Together strategy? E. Objective of the Research The aim of the research was to improve speaking skills of the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan through Numbered Heads Together strategy. F. Significance of the Research This research was expected to give contribution theoretically and practically. 1. Theoretical significance Theoretically, this research was expected to enrich the knowledge on the techniques of teaching speaking for students through Numbered Heads Together. 2. Practical significance Practically, this research was expected to be useful for: a. Students This research was expected to help the students of SMP Negeri 1 Jogonalan to learn how to speak and make them confident to speak English. b. English teachers This research was expected to provide an input for the teachers in providing an alternative solution to improve their students speaking skills through Numbered Heads Together.

19 6 c. English Education Department students This result might become one of the references to get information about the significance of the use of Numbered Heads Together strategy and to inspire those who are interested in conducting research studies using this strategy. It was also able to enrich and enlarge the knowledge of teaching English, especially in improving the speaking skill. d. The researcher This research was expected to increase the awareness of the contribution of Numbered Heads Together strategy to improve the students speaking skills in the teaching and learning processes and gave the experience in doing the research and working with other people as well.

20 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW A. Literature Review 1. The Notion of Speaking Communication is an interactive process that involves the transmission of information, ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Communication is not passive and it does not just happen, because both the speaker and the listener are actively and consciously engaged in a conversation in order to develop and exchange information, meaning, and understanding. Communication is considered as an interactive process because there are two communication agents involved in its process; they are the sender and the receiver. They give influences on each other through responses. According to Savignon (1983: 8), communication is also defined as a continued process of expression, interpretation, and negotiation. Therefore, communication involves at least two people to exchange information, ideas, thoughts, or feelings through expression, interpretation, and negotiation. a. The Definition of Speaking Communication can be done by using spoken or written language but mostly people use the first one. Speaking is one of skills in English which is purposed to teach students how to communicate using spoken language. Speaking has also become object of study of many experts. Therefore, there are some definitions of speaking proposed by them. Brown (2004: 140) defines speaking as a productive skill that can be directly and empirically observed. Those observations are invariably colored by the accuracy and effectiveness of a test-taker s listening 7

21 8 skill, which necessarily compromises the reliability and validity of an oral production test. Channey (1998: 13) states that speaking is a process of building and sharing meaning using verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts. Bryne (1998: 8) also mentions that, speaking is a two-way process between speaker and listener and involves the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding. In the same respect, Nunan (2003: 48) agrees with Bryne that speaking is a productive oral skill and it consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning. According to Chastain (1998: ), speaking is a productive skill and it involves many components. Speaking is more than making the right sounds, choosing the right words or getting the constructions. From the above definitions, it can be reffered that speaking ability is a skill, which is communicating the speech sound for expressing and conveying messages or ideas. To do that kind of ability, someone should have some particular knowledge. b. Functions of Speaking Richards (2008: 21-28) distinguishes three functions of speaking which are different in term of the form, function, and teaching approaches. The functions of speaking are: talk as interaction, talk as transaction and talk as performance. The first function of speaking is talk as interaction. Talk as interaction describes interaction that serves a primarily social function. To establish a comfortable zone of interaction with others, people exchange greeting, engage in

22 9 small talk, and recount recent experience, when they meet. Such exchanges may be either casual or more formal, depending on the circumstances. The focus of interaction is more on the speaker in how they wish to present him/herself to others than on the message. The second function of speaking is talk as transaction. Talk as transaction refers to situation where the focus is on what is said or done. The central focus on this kind of function is the message and making oneself understood clearly and accurately. The third function of speaking is talk as performance. Talk as peformance refers to public talk, that is, a talk that transmits information before an audience. It tends to be in the form of monolog rather than dialog, often follows a recognizable format and is closer to written language than conversational language. c. Basic Types of Speaking Brown (2004: 141) divides five basic types of speaking. They are: 1) Imitative At one end of a continuum of type of speaking performance is the ability to simply parrot back (imitate) a word or phrase or possibly a sentence. While this is a purely phonetic level oral production, a number of prosodic, lexical, and grammatical properties of language may be included in the criterion performance. We are interested only in what is traditionally labeled pronunciation. No inference is made about the test-takers ability to understand or convey meaning or to participate in an interactive conversation. The only role of listening here is in the

23 10 short-term storage of a prompt, just long enough to allow the speaker to retain the short stretch of language that must be imitated. 2) Intensive A second type of speaking frequently employed in assessment context is the production of short stretches of oral language designed to demonstrate competence in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological relationships (such as prosodic elements- intonation, stress, rhythm, juncture). The speaker must be aware of semantic properties in order to be able to respond, but interaction with an interlocutor or test administrator is minimal at best. Example of intensive assessment tasks include directed response tasks, reading aloud, sentence and dialogue completion, limited picture- cued tasks including simple sequences; and translation up to the simple sentence level. 3) Responsive Responsive assessment tasks include interaction and test comprehension. However, it is at limited level of very short conversations, standard greetings and small talk, simple requests and comments, and the like. The stimulus is usually a spoken prompt (in order to preserve authenticity), with perhaps only one or two follow-up questions or retorts. Table 1. Examples of Short Conversations A Marry : Excuse me, do you have a time? Drog : Yeah. At nine-fifteen. B Teacher : What is the most urgent environmental problem today? Student : I would say massive deforestation. C Jeff : Hey, Stef, how s it going? Stef : Not bad, and yourself? Jeff : I m good Steff : Cool. Okay, gotta go!

24 11 4) Interactive The differences between responsive and interactive speaking are in the length and complexity of the interaction, which sometimes include multiple exchanges and participants. Interaction can take the two forms of transactional languages, which has the purpose of exchanging specific information, or interpersonal matters, and which have the purpose of maintaining social relationships. (In the three dialogues cited above, A and B were transactional, and C was interpersonal). In interpersonal exchanges, oral production can become pragmatically complex with the need to peak in a casual register and use colloquial language, ellipsis, slang, humor, and other sociolinguistic conversations. 5) Extensive (monologue) Extensive oral production tasks include speeches, oral presentations, and storytelling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners is either highly limited (perhaps to nonverbal responses) or ruled out together. Language style is frequently more deliberative (planning is involved) and formal for extensive tasks, but we cannot rule out certain informal monologues such as casually delivered speech (for example, my vacation in the mountains, a recipe for outstanding pasta primavera, recounting the plot of a novel or movie) d. Micro- and Macro-skills of Speaking Speaking consists of micro- and macro-skills. Brown (2004) proposes micro- and macro-skills of speaking. Micro-skills of speaking are about producing morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences. Macro-skills of speaking are about fluency, discourse, function, style, nonverbal communication, and the like.

25 12 According to Brown (2004: 142), there are 16 different skills in English as mentioned below. 1) Micro-skills a) Produce differences among English Phonemes and allophonic variants. b) Produce chunks of language of different lengths. c) Produce English stress patterns, word in stressed and unstressed positions, rhymic structure, and intonation contours. d) Produce reduced forms of words and phrases. e) Use an adequate number of lexical units (words) to accomplish pragmatic purposes. f) Produce fluent speech at different rates of delivery. g) Monitor one s own oral production and use various strategic devices pauses, fillers, self-corrections, backtracking to enchance the clarity of the message. h) Use grammatical word classes (noun, verb, etc.), systems (e.g., tense, agreement, pluralisation), word order, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms. i) Produce speech in natural constituents: in appropriate phrases, pause groups, breath groups, and sentence constituents. j) Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms. k) Use cohesive devices in spoken discourse. 2) Macro-skills a) Appropriately accomplish communicative functions according to situations, participants, and goals. b) Use appropriate styles, registers, implicature, redundancies, pragmatic conventions, conversation rules, floor-keeping and yielding, interrupting, and other sociolinguistics features in face-to-face conversations. c) Convey links and connections between events and communicate such relations as focal and peripheral ideas, events and feelings, new information and given information, generalization and exemplification. d) Convey facial features, kinesics, body language, and other nonverbal cues along with verbal language. e) Develop and use a battery of speaking strategies, such as emphasizing keywords, rephrasing, providing a context for interpreting the meaning of words, appealing for help, and accurately assessing how well your interlocutor is understanding you. Those micro- and macro-skills can help teachers to design appropriate speaking tasks to students. Brown (2004) also proposes some issues that should be considered as the teachers set out to design speaking task:

26 13 a) No speaking task is capable of isolating the single skill of oral production. b) Eliciting can be tricky because beyond the word level, spoken language offers a number of productive options to test takers. c) It is important to carefully specify scoring procedures. According to these issues, teachers should be careful in designing speaking tasks. Speaking tasks cannot be isolated from listening activities as the input. e. Components Underlying Speaking Effectiveness According to Canale and Swain in Richards & Renandya (2002: 206), there are four abilities underlying speaking effectiveness. 1) Grammatical competence In order to convey meaning, a speaker must have the knowledge of words and sentences. He/she must understand how words are segmented into various sounds, and how sentences are stressed in particular ways. Thus, grammatical competence enables speaker to use and understand English language structure accurately and unhesitatingly, which contributes to their fluency. 2) Discourse competence In addition to grammar competence, a speaker must also develop his/her discourse competence. He/she must concern with the discourse relationships such as formal or informal utterance and the rules of cohesion and coherence in sentences. This relationships help to communicate in a meaningful way. He/she must also concern with the relationships of time, indicator, contrast, and emphasis. This relationships help to manage the turn taking in conversation. 3) Sociolinguistic competence A speaker must also have Sociolinguistic competence, which involves knowing what users of the target language expect socially and culturally. The

27 14 speaker must acquire the rules and norms for effective and appropriate use of the target language. 4) Strategic competence A speaker must have perhaps the most important of all communicative competences, Strategic competence. With reference to speaking, Strategic competence refers to the ability to know: how and when to take a floor, how to keep a conversation going, how to terminate the conversation and how to clear up communication. f. Difficulties of Speaking Many people regard that speaking skill is difficult. The following eight characteristics of spoken language are proposed by Brown (2001: ) which can make oral performance easy as well as, in some cases, difficult. 1) Clustering. Fluent speech is phrasal not word by word. Learners can organize their output both cognitively and physically through clustering. 2) Redundancy. The speaker has an opportunity to make meaning clearer through the redundancy of language. 3) Reduced forms. Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels etc. are special problems in teaching spoken English. Learners who never learn colloquial contractions sometimes speak too formal in casual context. They become bookish and stilted. 4) Performance variables. In spoken language there is a process called thinking time. During this thinking time, learners can employ certain number of performance hesitations, pauses, backtracking, and correction. Some examples of thinking time in English such as inserting fillers like uh, um, well, you know, I mean, etc. hesitation phenomena are the most salient difference between native and non-native speakers of language. 5) Colloquial language. Students should be familiar with words, idioms, and phrases and they practice to produce these forms. 6) Rate of delivery. It is one of the characteristics of fluency. Teachers should help learners achieve an acceptable speed along with other attributes of fluency. 7) Stress, rhythm, and intonation. The stress-timed rhythm of spoken language and its intonation patterns convey important message in any communication forms. 8) Interaction. Having no interlocutor can rob the speaking skill components. One of them is the creativity of conversational negotiation.

28 15 2. Teaching Speaking Speaking should be taught and then be practiced in the language classroom, because the language course truly requires the students to communicate in English. Teaching speaking needs a special treatment. In reality, people speak more than they write. However, many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice and almost ignore speaking and listening skills. Based on the statement above, there should be a good balance to practice in the classroom. Nunan (2003: 48) has clarified it. He suggests English learners: a) to produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns; b) to use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language; c) to select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social settings situation and subject matter; d) to organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence; e) to use language as a means of expressing values and judgments, and f) to use the language quickly and confidently. a. Principles of Teaching Speaking The following are some principles for designing teaching speaking proposed by Brown (2001). 1) Teacher needs to use technique that covers the spectrum of learner needs. (From language-based focus on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning and fluency) 2) Teacher should provide intrinsically technique which motivates students. The students should realize that the activity would benefit them. 3) Teacher should encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts. It is important to consider that learning context must be meaningful towards the students. 4) Teacher needs to provide appropriate feedback and correction, given in appropriate way. 5) The learning should be capitalized on the natural link between speaking and listening, because many interactive techniques that involve speaking will also of course include listening. 6) The students should be given opportunities to initiate oral communication such as by asking questions and providing information.

29 16 7) The development of speaking strategies should be encouraged such as how to ask clarification (What?) or how to ask someone to repeat something (Excuse me). b. The Teacher s Roles During speaking activities, the teacher needs to play a number of different roles. Harmer (2001: 275) points out three roles of teachers in teaching speaking. 1) Prompter When speaking, students are sometimes confused and cannot think of what to say next. It makes the loss of the fluency we expect of them. A teacher as prompter has a role to help them by offering discrete suggestions. It can be done supportively (without disrupting the discussion) or ask them to act out of their roles. 2) Participant A teacher should be good animator when asking students to produce language. Sometimes this can be achieved by setting up an activity clearly and enthusiastic. The teacher also may participate in discussions or role-plays his/her selves to help the activity go on. It purposes to ensure the continuity students engagement or to maintain creative atmosphere. 3) Feedback provider It is vital that a teacher allows the students to assess what they have done, but it is important to think about possibility that over-correction may inhibit students in the middle of a speaking activity.

30 17 c. Classroom Speaking Activities There are many of activities in the speaking classroom which are used to promote communicative-based activities. Harmer (2001: ) says that there are some activities which are currently used. 1) Acting from a script In this type of activity, a teacher can ask the students to act out scenes from plays and/or their course books. Sometimes, he/she can film the results. The students may act out dialogues they have written themselves. It involves them in coming out to the front of the class. 2) Communication games There are some games which are designed to provoke communication between students, which frequently depend on an information gap so that one student has to talk to a partner in order to solve a puzzle, draw a picture and put things in the right order. 3) Discussion Discussion occurs when the students talk about something and tell each other their ideas or opinions. They talk about topic being discussed and tell their ideas or views about it. 4) Prepared talks When students make a presentation on a topic of their own choice, they are doing prepared talks. It represents a defined and useful speaking genre, and if properly organised, it can be extremely interesting for both speaker and listener.

31 18 Such talks are not designed for informal spontaneous conversation because they are prepared and more writing-like. 5) Questionnaire Questionnaires are useful because it designs questioner and respondent to have something to say each other. It may encourage them to naturally use certain repetitive language patterns. Questionnaires can be designed on any topic that is appropriate. The results obtained from questionnaires can then form the basis for other speaking activities, such as discussions and prepared talks. 6) Simulation and role-play Simulation is a kind of activity in which the students simulate a real-life encounter (such as a business meeting or interviews) as if they were doing so in the real world. It can be used to encourage general oral fluency, or to train student for specific situation. Role-play is little bit different with simulation, since in doing this activity, we add the element of giving the participants information about who they are, and what they think and feel. For example, we might tell a student that they are a patient who wants to meet a doctor or a football player who wants to ask for new contract. This is an effective activity when it is open-ended, so that different people have different views of what the outcome should be. d. Different Factors Affecting Students Speaking Ability In teaching speaking, there are many factors that highly influence the processing of speech. It can affect negatively on acquiring speaking ability and

32 19 obstructing students to speak fluently. According to Richards (2005: 205), there are four factors, which affect students oral communication ability such as: 1) Age or Maturational Constraint According to Scarsella and Krashen in Richards (2005), they who begin learning a foreign language in early childhood through natural exposure, achieve higher proficiency than they do as adults. This fact shows that the aging process itself may affect or limit the adult learners' ability to pronounce the target language fluently. 2) Aural Medium Listening plays an extremely important role in the development of speaking ability. Speaking is closely related to listening because listening is the basic mechanism of language internalization. 3) Socio- cultural Factor Language is a form of social action because linguistic communication occurs in the context of structured interpersonal exchange. To speak a language, people must know how language is used in a social context. 4) Affective Factor The affective side of a learner is probably one of the important influences on language learning success or failure. The affective factors which relate to foreign language learning are emotion, self-esteem, empathy, anxiety, attitude, and motivation. These four factors play an important role in determining the success and the failure of student in learning speaking. If the teachers are aware of these

33 20 factors, they teach in a more appropriate way and help them in developing students speaking skills. e. Assessing Speaking Brown (2004: 140) points out that speaking is a kind of productive skill that can be directly and empirically observed. However, assessing speaking is challenging because there are so many factors that influence raters /teachers impression on how well someone can speak a language. When a teacher assess speaking it means that, the teacher s listening ability determine the reliability and validity of an oral production test. Another challenge is the design of elicitation techniques. The difficulty in assessing speaking can be overcome by using appropriate ways. In addition, Harmer (2001) proposes that assessing speaking performance should be represented through praise or comment. However, the teacher should be careful in praising or commenting the students work. The teacher should consider the students psychology. Not all students can accept the praises or comments positively. The teacher should give praises or comments that do not decrease the students motivation. Harmer also adds some ways to assess the students work: 1) Comments Comments can be used to assess both indoor and outdoor speaking performances.

34 21 2) Marks and grades Giving marks and grades to assess the students work should be considered carefully. Before giving marks and grades, the teacher should discuss the criteria with the students so that they know the target that has to be achieved. 3) Reports Reports are used in the end of a semester or the study to report the result of the students work. The reports usually are given to the students themselves, parents, and school. f. Teaching Speaking in Junior High School In the academic year of 2014/2015, the teaching and learning process in Junior High School uses Curriculum of According to Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan No. 68 tahun 2013, one of the characteristics of Curriculum of 2013 is balancing spiritual, social, and knowledge competences. Those competences are stated into core competence which is detailed in form of basic competence. The core and basic competences of teaching speaking in eighth grade students of Junior High School are presented as follows: Table 2. Core and Basic Competences of Teaching Speaking in Junior High School Core Competences 1 Menghargai dan menghayati ajaran agama yang dianutnya. 2 Menghargai dan menghayati perilaku jujur, disiplin, tanggungjawab, peduli (toleransi, gotong royong), santun, percaya Basic Competences 1.1 Mensyukuri kesempatan dapat mempelajari bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa pengantar komunikasi internasional yang diwujudkan dalam semangat belajar. Menunjukkan perilaku santun dan peduli dalam melaksanakan komunikasi interpersonal dengan guru dan teman. (Continued)

35 22 (Continued) Core Competences diri, dalam berinteraksi secara efektif dengan lingkungan sosial dan alam dalam jangkauan pergaulan dan keberadaannya 3. Memahami dan menerapkan pengetahuan (faktual, konseptual, dan prosedural) berdasarkan rasa ingin tahunya tentang ilmu pengetahuan, teknologi, seni, budaya terkait fenomena dan kejadian tampak mata. 4. Mengolah, menyaji, dan menalar dalam ranah konkret (menggunakan, mengurai, merangkai, memodifikasi, dan membuat) dan ranah abstrak (menulis, membaca, menghitung, menggambar, dan mengarang) sesuai dengan yang dipelajari di sekolah dan sumber lain yang sama dalam sudut pandang/teori. Basic Competences 2.2 Menunjukkan perilaku jujur, disiplin, percaya diri, dan bertanggung jawab dalam melaksanakan komunikasi transaksional dengan guru dan teman. 2.3 Menunjukkan perilaku tanggung jawab, peduli, kerjasama, dan cinta damai, dalam melaksanakan komunikasi fungsional. 3.1 Menerapkan struktur teks dan unsur kebahasaan untuk melaksanakan fungsi sosial dari ungkapan memberi instruksi, mengajak, melarang, minta ijin, serta cara responnya, sesuai dengan konteks penggunaannya 4.1 Menyusun teks lisan dan tulis sederhana untuk menyatakan, menanyakan, dan merespon ungkapan memberi instruksi, mengajak, melarang, dan minta ijin, dengan memperhatikan fungsi sosial, struktur teks, dan unsur kebahasaan yang benar dan sesuai konteks. 3. Numbered Heads Together a. The Nature of Numbered Heads Together Numbered Heads Together (NHT) is a Cooperative Learning strategy that offers an alternative to the competitive approach of whole-class question-answer, in which the teacher asks a question and then calls on one of the students by his/her number (Kagan, 1989:12-15). Before reviewing the literature about NHT, this part gives some reviews of Cooperative Learning. 1) Cooperative Learning Model Cooperative Learning is one of the application of the constructivist theory. This lesson comes from the concept that students can easily find and understand

36 23 difficult concepts if they discuss it with their classmates. Students regularly work in groups to help each other solve complex problems. Thus, the social nature and the use of peer groups are the main aspects of the cooperative learning (Trianto, 2013: 56). The main idea of cooperative learning is that students work together to learn actively and to take responsibility toward the progress of their group members learning process. Cooperative learning here emphasizes more on the achievement of the goal and success of the group (Slavin in Trianto, 2013: 57). Cooperative learning is a teaching model using a system of group / small teams between four to six students who have heterogeneous background of academic ability, gender, race, or ethnicity. This kind of method has two major components, the cooperative task component and cooperative incentive structure component. Cooperative task component is related to the things that causes members to work together in groups to complete the tasks, while the incentive structure component is something which motivates individuals to work together to achieve group goals (Wina Sanjaya, 2009: ). According to Agus Suprijono (2012: 54), the cooperative learning is a broader concept that covers all types of group work, including forms of higher led or directed by the teacher. Meanwhile, according to Anita Lie (2008: 29), cooperative learning is a teaching model that encourages students to learn and work in small groups with a positive element of reliance, individual responsibility, faceto-face communication among members, and group evaluation. Eggen & Kauchak in Trianto (2013:58) explain that cooperative learning is a teaching strategy that involves a group of students to work collaboratively to

37 24 particular goals. Cooperative learning is arranged in an attempt to improve the activeness and participation level of students, facilitate students with experience as well as give students the opportunity to interact with other students from different backgrounds. Based on explanation above, it can be concluded that the essence of cooperative learning is to increase the activity and performance of students in the academic field and to help students understand difficult concepts and also to help students think critically. 2) Principles of Cooperative Learning Model According to Johnson & Johnson and Sutton in Trianto (2013:60), there are five important elements in cooperative learning. They are: a) There is a positive interdependence among students Using cooperative learning model, students are expected to feel that they are working together to achieve one goal and tied to each other. Students are not successful in the learning process unless all members of their group are also successful. Students are expected to feel that they are parts of the group who also have to contribute to the success of the group. b) Interaction level among students is increasing Cooperative learning can increase interaction level among students. This happens because a student is expected to help other students to succeed as members of the group. Mutual assistance occurs naturally because of the failure of a person in the group affecting the success of the whole group. Interactions that occur in a

38 25 cooperative learning are in terms of the exchange of ideas on issues that are learned together. c) Individual Accountability in terms of: Individual accountability in group works may be the students responsibility (1) To help students who need assistance. (2) Students are not only be a fixture in the group but actively participate in the group work processes. d) Interpersonal skills and small groups In cooperative learning, besides they are required to learn the given materials, students are also required to learn how to interact with other students in the group, and how they should perform in conveying ideas and opinions in the group. e) In the group process, cooperative learning does not take place without the group process. Group process occurs when the group members discuss how they can achieve goals and make good relationships among members. The idea above is in accordance with Wina Sanjaya (2009: ) and Made Wena (2011: ) in that they mention the implementation of cooperative learning should include four basic principles, namely: a) Positive Interdependence Principle In the group learning process, the success of a group in completing a given task depends on the contribution of the group members. Therefore, the success of a group is determined by the performance of each member of the group so that all

39 26 members are expected to feel interdependence. The atmosphere of mutual dependence can be created through a variety of strategies, namely: (1) The mutual interdependence in achieving goals, in which each student feels that he/ she needs each other in order to achieve the learning objectives. (2) The mutual interdependence between learners in groups to complete the learning tasks. (3) The mutual interdependence of materials or learning resources. (4) The mutual interdependence of roles, which requires learners to help each other in the learning process. (5) The mutual interdependence of rewards, which are awarded to the group based on the group's work instead of the work of an individual. b) Individual Accountability Principle This principle is a consequence of the first principle. The success of the group depends on each of its members. Therefore, each member of the group should have responsibility in accordance with his/her duties. Each member must provide the best for the success of the group. To achieve this, the teacher needs to provide an assessment of the individual and the group. c) Face to Face Promotion Interaction Principle Cooperative learning gives opportunity to every member of the group to come face to face with and give information to each other. Face-to -face interactions provide valuable experience for every member of the group to work together, respect each difference, make use of each member s advantage, and take up the slack of each member. d) Participation Communication Principle Cooperative learning trains the students to be able to actively participate and communicate. These two abilities are very important as a stepping-stone to the future of life in the community.

40 27 3) Cooperative Learning Procedure Wina Sanjaya (2009: ) describes that the procedure of cooperative learning in principle consists of four stages, namely: a) Material Explanation This is the process of delivering the main points of the subject matter before the students learn in groups. It aims to make the students understand the subject matter. At this stage the teacher may use some leaning methods, such as lecturing, brainstorming, and even questioning. Or, they can use instructional media to attract the attention of the learners in the process of delivering the material. b) Learning in Group After the teacher explains the subject matter, the students are asked to learn in groups which had previously formed heterogeneously. In terms of academic ability, a group usually consists of a student with higher academic skills, two students with moderate skills, and a student with lower academic skills. c) Assessment The assessment process can be done through conducting tests or quizzes that can be performed by students individually or in groups. Individual test results provide information capabilities of each learner and group test results provide information on the ability of each group. The final score of each learner is the merging the two scores. d) Team Recognition It is the determination of the team that is considered the most prominent or most accomplished team to then be given an award or prize. Recognition and